Character development is never for nothing.
Even if they get separated and then life for two more scenes, it would not have been for nothing.
Because the suffering and the decisions meant something when they were taken and shouldered. It meant something to the people around them.
And you don't get to take that back.
But that still lowers the stakes. We reading it need to feel like there's a chance shit could go bad. If the MC and all his friends always come away from battles without taking any serious losses, then it ruins the tension.
The only serious loss so far is Michael, and he's going to be reintroduced anyway.
Sure faceless NPC's always die in superhuman, but for the most part you can nearly save every single named character.
Like even duncan is still alive.